"People we meet on vacation" is a short romantic getaway (and nothing more) The film is the adaptation of the novel of the same name by Emily Henry, available on Netflix from January 9th
Traveling can mean feeling the urge to search for something or wanting to run away. Sometimes the two things overlap, as they do in People We Meet on Vacation – Un amore in vacanza, at least for much of the story. The protagonist Poppy (Emily Bader) has always felt out of place in the small (fictional) town of Linfield, Ohio, where she moved when she was eleven. Only years later, almost a decade after her arrival, does she meet the person who will become her best friend, Alex (Tom Blyth).
People We Meet on Vacation, the plot of the Netflix film
Much like in one of the opening scenes of When Harry Met Sally, Poppy and Alex meet while sharing the hours of a road trip that will take them to Boston, where they will spend their college years. And, just like the iconic characters born from Nora Ephron’s pen, the relationship between the protagonists of People We Meet on Vacation initially revolves around the possibility of building a friendship, despite the girl’s eccentric and sunny personality being at odds with the boy’s cautious and serious nature. The similarities between Robert Reiner’s classic and the Netflix film directed by Brett Haley stop there, though. This adaptation of Emily Henry’s novel does not explore whether men and women can truly be friends, but rather what kind of relationship can develop between two people who only spend time together on vacation, far from the proverbial and inevitable grind of everyday life.
The promise at the heart of the story based on the novel
Alex and Poppy make a promise: every summer, they will spend one week together somewhere far from their everyday lives. Just the two of them, and nothing else. But who are we when we’re on vacation? Can we be anyone we want, or is it precisely the moment when we are most ourselves? In searching for an answer that aligns with the romantic story brought to the screen by Brett Haley, with a screenplay written by Yulin Kuang, Amos Vernon, and Nunzio Randazzo, People We Meet on Vacation reflects on what truly makes traveling special, what it means to discover new things, and what value we can assign to each return home. A home that looks very different for the two protagonists. For Poppy, there is no safe harbor: her fridge is always empty, her mailbox overflowing with scraps of paper and unopened bills she does not even bother to check once she gets back to her New York apartment, despite being, in real life, a travel reporter. For Alex, home is the city where he was born, the time spent with his grandmother, the idea of putting down roots on which to build a future.
The new go-to romance film, but something is missing
Caught between freedom and stability, fears and desires, the Netflix film is carefully crafted to become the new romance for fans of the genre to spend their time with on the platform. A film whose destination is already clear, and whose most interesting question revolves around a line spoken by Alex: “Love has never been our problem.” In the protagonists’ story, the feeling is obvious. What holds them back for years is how and where to let it grow. The film reflects on what travel represents for each of them and what it means to return home. A perspective on the story that nonetheless has to comply with the lightness required by the adaptation, becoming somewhat conventional and leaving its most stimulating themes only subtly hinted at.
Emily Bader and Tom Blyth each live up to the inclinations required of their characters, although the actress seems somewhat confined to similar romantic roles, given her experience (albeit brief, due to its early cancellation) in the Prime Video series My Lady Jane. She embodies the type of bright, charming young woman with her own flair, afraid of being “too much,” while Alex sheds his rigidity when he’s on vacation, without this preventing him from remaining the calmer, more grounded half of the couple in every situation. In this way, People We Meet on Vacation – Un amore in vacanza conforms to the standard rather than trying to surpass it and, much like a short escape, offers a viewing experience that takes the audience away for a moment before dropping them back into reality, leaving more the feeling of having spent a long weekend than the kind of trip that changes your life.
